With less than a month left for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attain the age of 75, nothing yet goes to show he would hang up his boots and pave the way for another leader to govern the nation. This is a curious phenomenon. It was with rare vehemence that Modi, in one clean sweep, relegated veterans like Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and some others to the sidelines, creating a Margdarshak Mandal for the BJP and its government and introducing an age bar for elders in 2014. It was clear to all that Modi as PM did not want them to stand in his way. The veterans cursed their fate and went into oblivion. Normally, the older and more mature, the more assertive the elders have been in seeking positions of power. Modi changed that scenario in the saffron party. It is to everybody’s knowledge that those who had been dumped into the Margdarshak Mandal never got a chance to offer any advice to either the party or the government. Rather, Modi and Amit Shah towered above all others and ran the government and the party. Now, however, it’s Modi’s turn to be at 75. Reports are that Modi would, in mid-September, shift the PMO to the recently built complex near the new Parliament House for a more comfortable existence. The message is loud and clear.
It would also sound curious that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat would be crossing age 75 in the same month of September; a few days before Modi does so. But, the RSS does not have any age bar for its top functionaries. Yet, Bhagwat hinted recently that he too is in favour of an age bar for leadership. Perhaps he had Modi in his mind. Rumours also swirled that the RSS is in a mind to look beyond the Modi era in Indian politics. In all fairness, it must be admitted that the BJP has a wealth of experienced leaders, mostly of the RSS stock, though their levels of governmental performance are debatable.
The present thinking on a change of PM seems to be guided also by the fact that the last parliament polls demonstrated a fall in the trust that the nation had reposed on Modi. He could not muster a majority for the BJP-led NDA in the 2024 parliament. His government survives today on the support the JDU from Bihar and Telugu Desam from Andhra Pradesh extend to it. Those like Naidu have a way of extracting their pound of flesh in such tricky situations. In the present circumstances, a weak Modi can only grin and bear with Naidu and Nitish Kumar, who had been pulling his legs for years. Another factor weighing against Modi is the way Operation Sindoor ended in a whimper. The perceived concern on the part of the RSS vis-à-vis Modi’s continuation as PM for his present full term might, thus, be prompted by several factors like these.
